To the Editor:
Like former Mayor Euille’s remark about the campaign contributions he takes from folks with business before the City Council not affecting how he decides, Councilman Chapman’s insistence that unilaterally upending the carefully crafted compromises in the Braddock East master plan, arrived at via a community engagement process, “is not unethical by any means” strains credulity.
Reneging on commitments made to citizens and written into law, without any new process to renegotiate those commitments, is not unethical? Not being true to your (by which I mean the City’s) explicit, enacted commitments is not unethical? Disrespecting the citizens’ time and effort to work out the master plan, their participation in the give-and-take process, is not unethical?
An affordable housing crisis is beside the point. If amply addressing it necessitated an ad hoc amendment allowing a site to be “spot-zoned,” an ethical City Hall would have followed up with a new community engagement process to seek something else to offer the affected neighborhood in lieu of what was taken away.
Like former Mayor Euille’s, Councilman Chapman’s understanding of ethics shows why we need an ethics commission.
Dino Drudi
Alexandria